Glenn Kappelman served as part of the 106th Cavalry Group in France, Germany, and Austria during the final two years of World War II. Contrary to U.S. Army rules, he smuggled over and used a personal camera to chronicle his self-described "adventure." The collection includes two scrapbooks of vintage snapshots and 407 pages of enlarged copies with captions. These enlargements were originally in seven binders, which were discarded to save space. Original, chronological order from those binders has been maintained. A letter of gratitude from King Albert II of Belgium, whose family was liberated from German captivity by the 106th Cavalry, and a newspaper article about a book project that used Kappelman's photographs complete the collection.

Kappelman's photographs include his entire service from boot camp to release, but there are some highlights worthy of comment. Page 207 shows colonial African prisoners of war, freed by U.S. soldiers, and page 300 shows the liberation of King Leopold III of Belgium. Pages, including 337, show post-war Munich and some of its extensive bomb damage.

The winter of 1944-1945 was a particularly harsh one in Europe. Page 247 shows snow on the ground near Wasserburg, Germany on May 2, 1945, when the 1,500 men of the 106th Cavalry Group forced the surrender of an 8,000 man Hungarian unit, their last active combat of the war. Page 358 shows a very tall roadside snowbank in Austria on July 15th of the same year.